Brook Park native helps with Hurricane Sandy clean-up and relief

On Oct. 25 the American Red Cross began urging New Yorkers to prepare for Hurricane Sandy.

Alaska Otterbacher (far right) and a team in Baton Rouge, Louisiana after Hurricane Isaac. Sun News

Weeks later, the super storm would leave a destroyed city in its wake, millions of dollars of damage was done, thousands lost their homes, and many lost their lives.

The storm has been estimated by many, including Scientific American, to be among the most damaging storms in American history.

In times of tragedy, however, organizations like the Red Cross tend to shine the brightest. Their members rush headfirst into disaster zones, eager to help out in any way they can. These are not perfect people they are normal folks doing their part to help a ruined area recover.

Alaska Otterbacher is one of those people.

Born in Berea in 1959, Otterbacher grew up in the Cleveland suburb of Brook Park. He attended Polaris Vocational Center and was a member of their carpentry program. His family still lives in the area: his mother in the family home, his brother in Brook Park and his sister in Cleveland. Many of his friends still reside in the area.

In 1985 Otterbacher moved to Alaska and two years ago he became involved with the Red Cross. He was asked to attend a Disaster Action Team training event near a small Alaskan village on the Yukon River. The Brook Park native is trained in Arctic Survival and indulges in a multitude of outdoor activities. With his reputation for adventuring, Otterbacher was a natural choice for the Red Cross.

In late Aug. of this year, his deployment to disaster zones began.

Otterbacher began giving back while still a Brook Park native.

“Been helping since I was a child,” he said.

His first relief outing was to Baton Rouge, Louisiana following Hurricane Isaac.

“While on assignment, living conditions are less than good. Sometimes we are housed in shelters with the victims, with no electricity, or hot showers. We could eat snacks for days before meals arrive. After all, these are true disaster areas,” Otterbacher said.

A bulldozer helps clear a street of debris in Nejecho Beach, New Jersey. Sun News

Over a three and a half month period Otterbacher has been deployed four times. This year he has twice been sent to the New York/New Jersey area as part of the Hurricane Sandy disaster relief team.

Recently he was stationed in New York. He, and his team, are staying near Times Square. Each morning at 7:30 a.m. they are bussed from that iconic location to a parking lot where they distribute meals to those in-need. They usually arrive back at their hotels between 5 and 6 p.m.

“It’s non-stop. From the time we get up to when we run out of meals we are working,” he said.

His team distributes 8,000 meals a day: 4,000 cold and 4,000 hot meals. They set-up in a make-shift assembly line and pass the food out. Demand remains high day-in and day-out. For some people, the Red Cross meal is the only food they’ll eat in a 24 hour span.

Otterbacher and the Red Cross will likely have some presence in the New York/
New Jersey area for the next couple of months. Otterbacher believes his relief support team will be stationed in the area into 2013.

For all of his donated hours Otterbacher, and others like him, receive no pay.

“Why do I do it? Helping those in need is the right thing to do! Anyone of us could find ourselves in this situation at any time. There is no beating Mother Nature. Although there is no pay, helping others in need is a great personal satisfaction,” he explained.

Otterbacher went on to say that he likes to enter disaster areas quietly, with as little fanfare as possible, and then slip out just as quickly.

“My style is to help without leaving a name or having any expectations,” he added.

According to their web site, FEMA has approved $1.13 billion in assistance. Assistance registrations number more than 500,000 and 4,738 FEMA employees have been deployed. All of that aid is supplemented by people like Alaska Otterbacher.

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